Barrier Miner (Broken Hill, NSW : 1888 - 1954), Monday 3 June 1912, page 3


WOBLD OF SPORT.

(By «Wakeful.")

"' -VT\-' THE TURF,

The Birthday Clip is undoubtedly South Australia's chief turf event. The aid hands may still swear by the Ade-laide Cup, but the Old Course race is the Melbourne Cup of the Wheat State sad tlie 'Morphettville event the Caul-field Cup of this section. The Birth-day Cup is decided on a portion of the park lands of Adelaide, and its accessi-bility will always give it a pull over Morphettville, which has to he reached hy train-if one cannot Bport a motorMr. In fact, it ia not so long since me Old Course was popularly known U " The People's Course." That -was before the death of our late Queen, to perpetuate the memory of whom the title of Victoria Park was bestowed on the Oki Course. However, it's hard to shift an established custom, and tho-i average sport would scarcely know J ¡what you "were talking about if you' .poke to him about Victoria Park. It M the Old Course by which the park lands racecourse is known,'and I don't think 'it will ever be known by any other name. '

And yet the name is a misnomer, for, bar the Port Course, the A.R.C. is ¡the, youngest course within the metroaolitun area. . The oldest course is down at Morphettville, and both the Gawler and Onkaparinga fixtures ante-date the inauguration of the Birthday meeting. The park lands course was in the first place practically a one-man undertaking, for it was laid out by the late Mr. P. B. Coglin, who had a fall-ing out with the South Australian Joc-key Club, and started a racecourse on his own. A better site could not have been obtained, and to-day the one-man course is one of the up-to-date racing resorts of the Commonwealth. The first Birthday Cup was competed for in 1878, and was won by Lockleys. The lollowing year saw that great little horsae Richmond take the Cup. Rich-

mond belonged to old Eli Jellett, not

long passed over to the Great Beyond. Itn later years Richmond was purchased by Mr. J. H. Aldridge, the first landlord of the Grand Hotel in Argent street. Mr. Aldridge made a pile out of the line of lode, and like his father before, was a lover of horses. There-fore, it was no surprise to find "Jim," as he was always popularly called, es-tablishing, a stud farm close to Ade-laide and that he had Richmond as lord of the harem. - As a compliment, to Eli Jellett's old champion, who won in Melbourne and Sydney, as well as in Adelaide, Mr. Aldridge named his stud farm Richmond Park. Since then the estate originally secured by Mr. Ald- ridge was purchased by the Kingston Government for the purpose of settling people on workmen's blocks, and later on that locality became the centre of a radical political party and is so to-day. It was to Richmond that the late Labor Premier, Tom Price, always re-ferred to as a flower of democracy. Anyway, what was once Richmond Park is now a populous Adelaide sub-urb, peopled by workmen's blockholders perhaps the most independent section of the community.

However, Mr. Aldridge retained suf-ficient land to continue his Richmond stud farm, when Carbine's son. Pistol, now reigns in the place of the dead and gone Richmond. Mr. Aldridge has had only two sires in his stud, and has coined money from both, However, the one-time Broken Hill boniface is so universally popular that no one be-grudges him his good luck. At the present, time he is on his way to the Old Country, and those who know him will join me in wishing him a jolly time.

Mata won the Cup in 1881, and-there

»rare ructions over that raoe. The ahick est. heavy-looking New Zealander liad been rubbed out over in Victoria, but-the V.R.C. did not tlhink it worth while to notify the A.R.C. of the fact. "The. result waa the latter club got tino '"grip," and decided to allow Mata to tun. It is worthy of'note that it was »t Mata's. cup that'the totalisaior first coade its appearance; in Australia! It mae run by a man named Franks, just aut.from England, and Mt was said he got his idea from France. He called

his system of betting the "equaliser," , It was a crude sort ,of affair, into which hackers' planked 5/ on their fancies, and then the pool was divided amongst ¿he supporters-of the winner. In fact it' was to all intents, and pur-poses, the same principle. ,as the tote,

but such a happy-go-lucky method was I adopted of handling'the coin that the police viewed the. scheme with a sus-picious eye-and eventually squashed'it.

Thel890 Birthday Cup, was, perhaps, the most sensational of the series. That year'the* race was',won by Harbinger after a dead heat with Ernoni. -The (Parkside Stakes on the opening day, is looked upon as a "feeler" for the Birthday. Clip, just as the Molbourno "Stakes is' to the Melbourne Cup. However,. more than once TÍO have seen horses run a rotten race in the Parkside Stages, and then come out a week I later and run away with the Birthday. | The A.R.C. stewards tolerate this kind of running, and though backers grumble and say they are full up of the game, they come-back for more at the first ¡time of asking. .

Nipple,- who won the Trial Stakes at the Hill on Wednesday, is a full brother to Tiercel, 'who.' among other races, has won a S.A. Derbv and City Handi-cap to his credit. There is a sister to Nipple and Tiercel over in Tasmania, where she won the Farewell Handicap et the Tasmanian Racing Club's meet-ing on June 25. Nipple is north somethmcr. a bit better than a Trial Stakes, for his breeding is just the thing. We nil know Pistol's Weeding but Olga Notihorsole's , is not so well known. She is by Newminster from Emmie, dam-'of Emir, who, until he turned Bour," was one of Australia's turf cham-pions. Few horses have ever turned the game up aà completely as Emir ¿id. tor after winning a number of first. class-races, he wouldn't gallop up to Hack Rnce form.

A. Hawkins was riding at Bendigo ian Thursday lost and at Adelaide two days latei.

Khakan's recent couple of wins, at the Hill would"indicate,that this son of Koran has at last.struck form. He was raced ¿or a long" time on Adelaide Courses by Jockey Press, who found

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it an expensive experiment tiying to make Kliakan pay his way. However, now that the golding has broken the ice there is no reason why he should not prove a profitable speculation tor Mr. H. Parker.

The veteran, The Gorge, a recent winner at the Hill, is bred well enough for anything, being by Gauhis out of The Gorget. For a long time The Gorge wasted his time m the wilds o I the west coast of South , Australia, where lie was a frequent winner at the bush meetings

The order issued by the V.R.C. that no horse suffering from a cold or other minor complaints shall be allowed on the Flemington training tracks has boen received with satisfaction b^ the major-ity of trainers working at the head-quarters of Victorian racing.

The Melbourne lightweight, Cyril Bolton, who was injured when Mayrah fell wïth. him at'the A.J.C. -Autumn meeting, is well enough to ,> resume riding. *

News is to hand from Sydney of the death of the blood stallion, Multiform, who died at the Whittingham stud on Saturday last. At the dispersal of the Yaldhursb &tud (New Zealand) in 1908 Mr. W. Brown gave 3750 guineas'for Multiform, who was a noted perfoifmer on the turf. '." ,

When biffer Bill Lang was in London a*while back, an English Bport^named a'horse after the .Australian boxer. If the biped Lang could not win auyl fights

his namesake, who is by Bill of Port-

land, can ivin laces./ Last week the equine Bill Lang won another race in England. ' "

The thneo-year-old son of Soult, Blakeney, who recently arrived in Syd-ney from New Zealand, has been pur-chased "by Mr. J. A. Beales, {lad will be trained by J. Burton.

Mr. Sam Griffiths has been 'reappointed handicapper to the Moonee Val-ley Racing Club. Before leaving for India Mr. Griffiths acted as weightadjuster for Moonee and other Mel-bourne clubs. ' '

The Sydney jockeys, A. and P. Kuhn, have left for India, where they will ride for leading owners during the forth-coming races. -